Shadows of Past
by sevenofmine
Summary: The son of a marine dies. Abby and Ducky determine poisoning as cause of death. To solve this case, the NCIS team has to dig into the marines past which turns out to be quite dangerous...
1. The beginning

Chapter 1

_Janet murmured and walked to the phone to call ambulance._

It was a rainy summer. It rained far too much for this time of a year. Simon Bennett was already soaked when he arrived at home. 'Simon, why haven't you called?', his mum said when she opened the door. 'I would have caught you.' 'Didn't matter', he said and put down his school bag. 'God, I don't feel well', Simon said and sat down at the kitchen table. 'What's up', his mum Janet asked and felt his forehead. 'You're pretty hot', she said as she felt the temperature of her son. 'I've got a headache', he said. 'I'm gonna go to bed and sleep a while.' 'Okay, I'll wake you up for dinner', she said and watched her son going up the stairs.

She turned back to the kitchen table and looked at her watch. Time for Lesley to come home, she thought just the moment when her 18-year old daughter walked through the door. 'Hey, mum', she said and put her bag next to Simon's. 'Where' Simon?', she asked. 'Upstairs. He didn't feel well', her mother explained. 'Homework?', Lesley nodded and sat down at the kitchen chair to start with Maths.

After two hours homework Lesley finally finished. 'Go wake up your brother. Dinner's nearly finished', her mum said and started making the table ready when she suddenly heard a scream that didn't want to stop. 'Lesley', she asked. She ran upstairs and into the room of her 7-year old son. He lay on the bed and didn't move. His skin was hot and his widened pupils stared at the ceiling. 'Oh my god', _Janet murmured and walked to the phone to call ambulance._


	2. Following slight traces

Chapter 2

**Imagine NCIS title sequence now ;)**

_Tony said and looked at Ziva._

Ducky kneed over the dead child. 'Such a shame', he murmured. 'So young.'

McGee sighed when he took the crime scene photos. He heard Tony talking with the 18-year old daughter. He looked outside. Gibbs sat at the kitchen table with Janet Bennett.

'Any idea who could have done this?', Gibbs asked.

The wife shook her head. 'Simon didn't have any enemies, not as far as I know.' 'What about your husband. Where is he?' 'He returned yesterday from Iran and is still at Navy harbor. He'll stay there for tonight', she explained.

Gibbs took notes. 'Did he have any enemies?'

'No, he's a good marine. He gets along with his mates. I don't know if there was anything, but I think not', she cried.

'Boss, we finished photographing crime scene', McGee came to his boss. 'Ducky is finished with the body, too.'

Gibbs nodded. 'If you remember anything', he said to the woman and gave her a card with his phone number on it. She nodded, still whining.

/

'What have you got for me, Abbs?', Gibbs asked when he entered Abby's lab.

'Henbane', she said and moved the picture of her computer monitor to the big plasma screen. Gibbs looked at it. He looked at Abby. It showed a violet flower's blossom, the leaves were hairy. 'That's henbane. About 15 seeds can be deadly for a child', she said with a serious face. 'But it doesn't grow here, usually. Not even in the forest', she added.

'You mean, he was poisoned?', Gibbs asked.

Abby nodded. 'Whoever that did, he was a specialist in biology. Ducky sent me a probe of his blood. The seeds were just a little bit too concentrated. Just enough to get him killed but not enough to taste it in food.' 'You think someone put it in his food?', Gibbs asked.

She nodded. 'I analyzed the rest of his sandwich he had for lunch and it contained traces of henbane. There is no doubt he was poisoned.'

'Good work Abbs', Gibbs said, kissed her on her forehead, gave her another Caf-Pow and left her lab.

/

'What have you got?', Gibbs asked and took another sip on his coffee.

'Nearly got it', McGee said and typing wildly in to his keyboard of the computer. Tony and Ziva looked concentrated on the screen.

'Now', Gibbs said impatiently.

'Got it', McGee triumphed and loaded it to the big screen. 'His name is Chris Bennett, Commander and 42 years old. He works on the ship 'Voyager' which is on Navy harbor here in Washington these days', McGee explained.

'He had a wife, Janet and an 18-year old daughter, Lesley. Simon was seven.' 'But the most interesting thing just came when we…McNerd hacked into the FBI data bank', Tony added. Gibbs looked at McGee.

'Sorry, boss. Had to', he explained himself. Gibbs didn't say anything.

'However, his actual name is Daniel Burton and he and his family have been living under Federal Witness Security for almost 15 years now. Fifteen years ago, Lieutenant Daniel saw his superior, Commander Brad Landsberg, shooting a twenty-five year old prostitute. He reported and in court Landsberg swore to kill him one day', Ziva said.

'Well, Landsberg got out of prison three months ago. Since then, nobody has seen him ever again. Possible that he wants revenge for that', Tony proposed.

'Where's he now?', Gibbs asked.

'As we already said, nobody has a clue', Tony said. 'But we'll find out', he added quickly and Tony and Ziva returned to their desks. Gibbs nodded and left the office again. He took the elevator to basements, Autopsy.

/

Gibbs got back to the other three agents only twenty-minutes later. 'Mexico', Tony said not looking up from his screen.

'Tony, Ziva', Gibbs said. 'On our way', Tony said and both agents took their rucksacks and went off.

'What shall I do now, boss?', McGee asked.

'You have his exact location?' McGee nodded. 'Find out as much as possible about him and his past three months.' 'On it, boss.'

/

'Ah, Mexico. The sun, the heat, the sand', Tony said when they left the airport and searched one of the not-air-conditioned taxis. 'The drugs, the wars', Ziva reminded him.

'Take the bright side of life', Tony said.

'Another film?', she asked. He nodded and they both took seat on the backseat of a yellow taxi.

'Downtown', Tony said and didn't listen to what the Mexican driver said.

Thirty minutes later and after spending twenty of those thirty minutes in a typical Mexican traffic jam they finally arrived at downtown.

'Where shall we go first?', Ziva asked when they stepped out of the car and Tony paid the driver.

'Bars', he said and walked on. Ziva sighed and followed him.

/

It was the third bar they entered, it was hot and dusty, as everywhere. They directly went to the barkeeper. 'What can I do for you?', he asked, directly in English when Tony held up his identity card.

'NCIS. We're looking for this man', he said and showed him a photo from Landsberg at the time when he still was in prison. 'I'm not sure', the barkeeper said looking at the photo.

'Perhaps I will make you sure', Tony said aggressively and pulled the barkeeper's t-shirt to him. 'Tony', Ziva warned him. 'We think that this man killed a seven year old boy who had parents and a sister, family. He killed a child', Tony hissed trying to control himself.

The barkeeper looked around. 'Maybe…I remember him', he said.

'I hope that for you', Tony said and let him go. 'He was here about two months ago. He was looking for a profi-killer. I perhaps gave him a hint.' 'Who?', Ziva asked. 'I gave him several names but I don't know who he finally hired.'

'Who?', Tony asked. 'I just redirected him to someone else and he organizes meetings for clients.'

'Who?', Ziva repeated.

'He was killed two months ago', the barkeeper said. 'Landsberg doesn't want to leave any traces', _Tony said and looked at Ziva._

**Please review.**


	3. No coincidence

Chapter 3

_Ziva said when she headed to the kitchen to prepare the evening meal._

McGee was sitting at his computer. He has been trying to find out Landsberg current location for over five hours now. 'God, I should also start drinking coffee', he murmured to himself and looked up from the screen for a moment. When he looked back, he saw an error code suddenly blinking:

Unidentified access

Those words were written in red letters and blinking at the left upper corner. McGee clicked on the note from his Anti-spy program. Somewhere was trying to access his computer from outside. McGee furiously started trying to prevent this but the unknown foe was to strong. He loaded several Trojans and spies on his computer so that the Anti-virus software had to occupy with them and couldn't prevent the unidentified log-in. McGee tried to stop him manually but without any success. Suddenly it all stopped. His computer left the black-red screen and turned back to normal. All viruses and Trojans were all of sudden deleted.

McGee gasped for relieve. Now he tried to trace down the foreign access but he always ran in circles. The foreign IP send him over servers in Canada to France to Shanghai and back to his own computer. He needed two hours to find out nothing. The only thing he found out made him feel worse. The foreign hacker had accessed the data bank of McGee's computer and obviously downloaded all files that were linked to the current case. In addition to that, he already downloaded all information and files about Gibbs' team. Someone tried to learn about them to rate them. He had to tell Gibbs.

/

Tony and Ziva left the airport. Finally, they were back in Washington again. Tony switched his cell phone on. 'A message from Gibbs', he said. 'He wants us to directly drive to Bennett's house.'

When they arrived, NCIS was already there. Tony and Ziva passed the warning tape.

Crime Scene / Do not cross

'What happened?', Ziva asked McGee when they got in. He was just talking to Mrs. Bennett who was heavily crying. Gibbs entered the kitchen. 'McGee, Ziva, Tony: Photos and sketches', he ordered them and sat down next to Janet Bennett. The three agents left room and went to Lesley Bennett's room where they found Ducky measuring the time of death of the dead eighteen-year-old girl.

'They were the best children I could imagine and now they're dead. That's unfair. I'm the parent, I should die before them. They're supposed to have a long life, they still had so much to do in it. And now they're gone', Mrs. Bennett cried. Gibbs hugged her.

'I just want to know who did this to me, to my family.'

'We will find out.' 'I am so…angry. I just wanna-'

'I know. Kill the guy who killed the most beloved people to you.' Mrs. Bennett looked at him. He still had her in his arms.

'I know, how it feels', Gibbs explained silently. 'You just want revenge. There is nothing else that counts in your life.'

'You want to tell me that after killing the murderer of your family, you don't feel any better, right?', Janet Bennett sighed.

'No, it makes you feel better. And life goes on. You think about it, often. But you know that you did the right thing', Gibbs said staring into nothing.

'What did someone do to you?', she asked.

'He killed my daughter and my wife. And I killed him', Gibbs said sadly.

Janet looked at him, shocked. 'It makes you feel better? I assume you're right', she said in thoughts.

The front door went open. 'Janet!', the man screamed and went in. 'Chris!', she said and hugged her husband. He was still in his marine clothes, he was tall and muscular, had short brown hair. 'They already let you go?', she asked.

'Yeah, after I heard what happened I had to come here.'

Gibbs stood up. 'Special Agent Gibbs, NCIS', he introduced himself. They shook hands. 'I'm investigating the murder.'

'Already found out anything?', the marine asked.

'You're son was murdered by a plant called henbane. We have a suspicion.'

'Who? May I see my daughter?' Gibbs and the marine walked to Lesley's room.

'We're not sure about our suspicion yet', Gibbs explained. 'But we need to take you and your wife in a temporary protection. We already know about your Federal Witness Protection.'

They entered the room. Chris Bennett saw the dead body of his daughter lying on the floor. He was a tough marine but this was just too much. He directly ran to the restrooms to vomit.

/

'What have you got for me, Abbs?', Gibbs went in and put a Caf-Pow on Abby's desk.

'Do I have a déjà-vu, Gibbs?', Abby asked confused.

'No', Gibbs said and looked over her shoulder at the screen.

'Alright', she said and put a picture on the screen.

'Against ants?', he asked and looked at the picture of the chemical bottle.

'It's 2,2-Dimethyl-1,3-benzodioxol-4-yl-N-methylcarbamat', she explained.

'In English, Abbs', Gibbs reminded her.

'It's a carbamate, a plant protection product. Ducky sent me a probe of Lesley Bennett's gastric content and I found concentrated elements. It was introduced chemically, which means that she was poisoned by food', Abby declared.

'Poisoned, too', Gibbs murmured.

'Thank you, Abbs', he said and left the room.

'Gibbs', she yelled him back. 'Who ever this was, I have to remind you that he had a great knowledge in Chemistry. Just wanted you to know this.'

'So we're searching a contract killer with an education in high chemistry who is working for Landsberg. Got it, Abbs', he said and left the room.

/

It was already evening when Janet, Chris , McGee and Ziva arrived at the 'shelter house' somewhere in the forests outside form Washington. They entered and packed out their things. Janet and Chris Bennett were going to share a room and McGee and Ziva. 'I'll take the couch', McGee said and sighed.

'That's gonna be a long night', _Ziva said when she headed to the kitchen to prepare the evening meal._

**Don't forget to review, please.**


	4. Last one alive

Chapter 4

_Without looking back she left restrooms and NCIS yard._

It was a sunny morning but Abby was clothed in black like every day. She closed her sun umbrella and entered the NCIS headquarters. She passed DiNozzo who was already working and went down to her lab. She put her lunch in the fridge and her jacket to her lab.

'Have you had a nice sleep?', she asked her gas chromatograph.

'I take that as a yes', she turned to her tiny centrifuge and asked him if he had gone dizzy already. She walked to all screens and monitors to switch them on. She started her computer and hummed the melody of Matrix which she had watched yesterday.

'God, I start becoming like Tony', she muttered to herself and started all necessary programs when suddenly a red light blinked in the corner.

Unidentified access to personal files and NCIS_data_bank

Abby directly checked her Anti-virus program and the firewall. The program was offline and the firewall was down, too. 'Shit', she cursed and tried to trace back the unidentified access but she couldn't even access what the unknown hacker was accessing.

One minute later she was completely locked out of her own computer. She couldn't do anything but wait. Three minutes later she finally got access again and saw, that the unknown hacker had successfully downloaded all personal files of Chris Bennett's family and the current file of the case including Abby's search results and Ducky's Autopsy report. The killer wanted to know how far they have got already.

Then Abby stopped breathing.

The killer also accessed confidential information such as the location of the 'safe house' outside Washington where McGee and Ziva were currently hiding the Bennett family. She had to warn them.

/

'That was Abby', Ziva explained when she put her cell phone back into her pocket.

'Get the Bennetts', she told McGee and took the car keys from the kitchen table.

'What's up?', he asked.

'Our anonymous hacker, again. He perhaps knows where we are.' McGee nodded and walked to the Bennett's bedroom. 'We gotta go', Ziva heard him saying.

Three minutes later they were all four walking through the forest to the car which they had hidden there. They arrived.

'I'll drive', Ziva said. 'But just make sure we survive this trip', McGee murmured and got onto the co-driver's seat. She started the motor and they headed to the road. It was a silent drive, nobody said a word.

It wasn't sure that their cover had been blown so Ziva drove not in the Gibbs-typical-driving-style. It was early in the morning and it was rural, so there was no car crossing them or coming from the front.

'Wow, civilization', Ziva said when they saw a black car appearing at the horizon. The car passed. McGee looked in the site mirror. 'Ah, Ziva', he said. Ziva looked into the back mirror. The car was turning around and now going after them. She drove faster. The other car got faster, too. Suddenly the man on the co-driver's seat opened the window and pulled out a machine gun.

'Oh, god, Ziva, drive faster', McGee said. 'Down', he screamed to the Bennetts and got down, too. He took his own gun and looked around. It was just a matter of time until either their car blew up or he shot the tire. He opened his window, too and started to shoot back.

'Ziva, watch out', he screamed because he couldn't target the other man on this ride. He fired blindly and finally the man let his submachine gun fall and fell onto the car.

'He's off', McGee screamed and pulled out his cell phone.

'What are you doing?', Ziva asked. The car was still following them.

'Take a photo', McGee said and tried to catch a photo of the driver. All he could see that it was a woman with long dark-brown hair. He got a photo, blurry and pixelized but he hoped that Abby would be able to tackle that.

He took again his gun and turned around. The back glass was missing and everywhere on the back seat were glass shivers and Janet and Chris were ducking down, trying not to see anything from what was happening. _(Okay, this sentence is too confusing…)_ McGee started firing again until he finally hit the front tire and the other car stopped. They drove away and McGee could see the woman getting out of the car. She was about thirty, a young, fit woman.

/

They were back at NCIS headquarters and they were all alive. Janet and Chris Bennett were directly sent to the Conference room. The married couple said down and Gibbs sat down, too.

'Tell me something about Landsberg', he said. Janet sighed.

'I saw him shooting a prostitute fifteen years ago. I told my superior and Landsberg got arrested. He swore to kill me and my family.'

'Therefore you're in Federal Witness Constitution.'

'Yes, my actual name is Daniel Burton.'

'What's your name? And your daughters?', she asked Janet.

'Latisha. Lesley's name was Mabel', Janet explained.

Gibbs nodded. 'You'll be safe in here. I promise.'

Tony walked in. 'Hey, boss. Abby's just analyzing the photo McGee shot', he said and sat down next to Gibbs who nodded. 'No match yet.'

/

'Do you always have to make your music so loud?', McGee asked while he watched Abby working.

'What do you say? The music is so loud', she screamed. McGee just sighed and nodded her to continue the work. Abby uploaded McGee's photo.

'Couldn't you have taken a better shot?', she asked.

'I had to shoot and to take a photo…and oh yeah, I tried not to get shot myself', McGee said nerved. Abby smiled and turned back to her PC. She enlarged the photo, edited it to make it less pixelized and misty.

After a while looking at the picture she decided it to be ready and dragged and dropped it into the face recognition program. 'Alright, here we go', she said and looked at the faces appearing and disappearing on the screen.

'That's gonna be interesting', McGee said and went off to get another coffee. Abby continued staring at the screen where no match was displayed yet.

/

'May I go to the restrooms?', Janet asked. Gibbs nodded.

Tony stood up. 'I don't need company for that', she said. 'Your security', Tony said, looked at Gibbs and sat down again.

Janet smiled. 'I can watch myself', she said and went off of the room. She walked down the corridor and looked down to special agent David working on her computer. She entered restrooms at the very same moment as another person. They smiled at each other and the stranger let her pass. There was no one else in the restrooms. Janet went to the toilet while the other person looked at herself in the mirror.

She was tall, about 30 year old, muscular, dark-brown haired with light brown strands. She pulled out a pair of gloves, the kind of gloves you use one time for example in chemistry labs and put them on. She took a little bottle out of her jacket and opened it. She opened the soap dispenser at the wall and filled in the content of the bottle. She took a glass rod and mixed this bottle content with the little mass of soap in the soap dispenser. She put the bottle and the glass rod back into a plastic bag and into her jacket. Janet left the toilet again and washed her hands.

The other woman looked at the mirror pretending to do something on her hairstyle. Janet took some 'soap' from the soap dispenser. She rubbed it on her hands, the other woman smiled. Janet looked at her hands, they got light red. 'What's this?', she murmured to herself. She took a deep breath, she couldn't breathe. She looked at herself in the mirror. She had gone pale but now she was getting color again. She tried to breathe but couldn't. She looked into the mirror, her sight was getting fuzzy, black until she finally knocked out and lost consciousness.

She fell off to the ground.

The other woman looked at her struggle and regarded her on the floor. Her face did not show any kind of emotion. She waited a moment, then kneed down to the body. She pulled out the gloves again and used them to feel the pulse of Janet.

No pulse.

She put off her gloves again and put them next to the dead body.

_Without looking back she left restrooms and NCIS yard._


	5. Gimme, gimme,gimme a match after midnite

Chapter 5

_Everything was too late, but at least they had a light trace to follow._

Tony got impatient. After ten minutes he said: 'I'm gonna have a look.'

'Be kind', Gibbs said and let him go. He turned back to Chris to talking.

Not one minute later Tony came back. 'Ah, boss, we have a problem.'

'Time of death about ten minutes, more or less', Ducky said and stand up again. The team looked at the body.

'How could this happen?', Gibbs asked.

McGee came in. 'No camera surveillance. It was disabled in the time frame from two hours ago until about three minutes ago. Everywhere at Navy yard', he said. 'There are obvious red livor mortis, but only one or two of them which conclude that the intoxication was very fast. I think hydrocyanic acid in liquid form', Ducky said and looked around.

'The soap dispenser', he said.

'Ziva', Gibbs ordered. She walked over and opened it. Ducky took a look inside. 'I think Abby will need a probe of it', he said and Ziva started searching a little glass. 'Isn't hydrocyanic acid actually gaseous?', McGee asked.

'Obviously not, McChemistry', Tony said taking another photo of the victim's red livor mortis.

'McGee is right, but the boiling temperature is 26 degrees centigrade therefore we can be lucky that it has not gone into the air yet', Ducky explained.

'What about the gloves?', Gibbs asked when Ziva bagged them.

'I think our murderer have left them here to let us know who he is', she said.

'Who she is', McGee said. 'It was definitely a woman.'

'But we don't know if this was her, too, Timothy', Ducky said.

'I think so. She is the killer Landsberg hired. She does every piece of work for him', McGee said.

'As long as she gets paid', Tony added.

'Add this to Abby's recognition program. With face and fingerprints she'll be easier to determine', Gibbs said.

Ziva nodded and collected the evidence to bring it down to Abby. Mr. Palmer and Ducky started to put the body into the body bag.

'What about Chris?', Tony asked.

'He'll get into the most secure hiding place', Gibbs said and went off.

'What this?', Mr. Palmer asked.

'His cellar', Tony said. 'I don't wanna know how many corpses he already buried there.' 'Far more than we can think of, I assume', Ducky said watching the door fall down again.

/

It was late night. Late night meant late night meaning around two o'clock in the morning. It was silent and dark everywhere at the NCIS quarters because everybody had already gone home. Well, except for Abby.

She was sleeping on the floor of her lab using Bert as her pillow. It made a noise every time she turned around in sleep. Suddenly, Abby was woken up by another noise. She knew that noise and she liked it.

She jumped onto her feet and switched in the monitor. There was a match, displayed in green lights:

Positive match

'Got you', she said and pressed enter.

/

'And it's safe down here?', Chris asked when he accepted the whiskey from Gibbs. They both stared at the point where a few years ago a boat had been.

'Absolutely', Gibbs said and took a nip.

'How many people died down here?' 'One. He had shot a member of my team', Gibbs said and remembered Ziva shooting her half-brother. Chris swallowed. 'So I should be reassured', he said drinking.

Gibbs' cell phone rang. 'It's two after midnight. Who calls you at that time?', Chris asked.

'Abby', Gibbs said looking at the phone display. 'My forensic scientist.'

'What's up, Abbs?', he asked.

'I have a match. For your killer.'

'Who?'

'Her name is Jessica Evans and she is twenty-nine years old. She was born as an orphan in Great Britain, her parents are unknown. With a censorship she made her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in France and her Master in Toxicology back in England. She also has a doctor title, her work was about the consequences of different plant protection products as poisons in human bodies. I don't want to know how she did the practical part of it.'

'Abbs.'

'However, in the age of twenty-five, when she had already finished studying because she had already graduated with fourteen, she switched sides. She made a formation as sniper and contract killer in a secret camp lead by the Italian Mafia in South France. Now, she is a free contract killer and much known for the different chemical based killing methods she uses. She has still a lot of friends at the Mafia and stays in contact with them. An informant of the French-Italia Mafia in Washington told FBI last week that Jessica was hired two weeks ago by Landsberg and that she has the contract to kill Chris Bennett's family and then kidnap him to Mexico.'

'Thank you, Abbs. Did the face recognition or the fingerprints alarm you?'

'Both at the same time', Abby said obviously smiling. Gibbs shut off his phone.

'Good news?', Chris asked. 'We know who Landsberg hired', Gibbs said.

/

It was a cold night but Ziva was used to not comfortable surroundings. She stood about twenty meters away and watched Gibbs' house. She did not feel anything, just knocked out and lost unconsciousness. Jessica stepped over her and felt her pulse.

She had one.

Good, she was not worth to die. Jessica went further and knocked out Tony from behind.

No other guards. McGee was ought to come in one hour. She had all the time in the world.

/

Gibbs looked up. He counted five men carrying submachine guns and he saw a woman stepping down the stairway.

'Special agent Gibbs, I assume', she said and looked at him. She was nearly as tall as he was, she was very muscular, but very thin. Slightly curled, brown hair, lighter brown strands and no expression of emotion in her eyes. She had dark blue eyes, very dark blue and wore a leather jacket, jeans and you could obviously see a gun half hidden under her black jacket.

'Yes. I assume you are here to kidnap us to Mexico?', he asked.

She did not look surprised. 'You're fast', she said. 'But I think your lab rat said something about escorting Chris, Daniel…however, to Mexico. Not you.'

'So you wanna shoot me here?', he asked.

'I don't think he wants a dead cop', one of the men with the machine guns reminded Jessica. She sighed shortly looking at him.

'Take both as hostages', she said and turned around. She stepped in front of the man who had remembered her before.

'I have the command in here and if Brad asks why we're bringing a cop alive to him, I'll let you explain', she said evilly. 'But perhaps you're lucky and he just lets me have fun with a new toy', she added with a side-glance on Gibbs and went out of the cellar. Gibbs and Chris followed, both pointed to by machine guns.

They were lead into one of the two cars and told to shut up. Jessica got into the other black car on the front seat. The driver kissed her and they drove away. Tony and Ziva both woke up about thirty minutes later and called McGee.

_Everything was too late, but at least they had a light trace to follow._


	6. Heading to Mexico

Chapter 6

_He wanted to start all over again._

Gibbs woke up again and the first thing he felt was that he lay on the floor. He opened his eyes and looked up. He saw a few pairs of shoes and someone screaming: 'They waking up.' He looked around and so Chris waking up next to him. They looked at each other. Gibbs wanted to stand up but he was pressed down again. 'Not that easy', a man explained and walked into his sight.

'Brad', Chris moaned.

'Oh, you recognize me after so many years? I am astonished. How was your new life? Funny? Well, life in prison was not funny at all', Landsberg said.

Gibbs looked around. Five men with submachine guns, Jessica standing a bit apart, together with another man, the driver from the other car, as Gibbs remembered.

'How's your family?', Landsberg carried on. 'Your son, your daughter, your wife?'

'Shut up you son of a bitch!', Chris screamed.

'Oh, I would not waste all of your strength now. You're going to need it', Landsberg kneed down in front of him and smiled. 'Tie them to the chains', he ordered the men and Gibbs felt how someone dragged him over the floor. They must have given him any kind of medication, he still felt very weak.

/

'Down in Mexico', Abby told McGee.

'Tell me something I don't know', he answered.

'Well, I can tell you his exact location within ten meters. Such a luck Gibbs remembered putting the location-device in his shoe', Abby said.

'He knew that Jessica was going to plan something. That's his gut instinct', McGee remembered her.

'Yeah, his supernatural sense', she said.

/

They arrived in Mexico when it was deep night. They arrived at the forest when it was even deeper night. They watched the farm with binocular glassed. 'Seems quiet', Tony said.

'Nothing that seems quiet, is quiet', Ziva hissed.

'They told you that by Mossad?', Tony asked ironically.

'I also learnt it at the scouts', McGee whispered.

'Oh, yeah, you two have perfect forest formation. Now, lead me', Tony said.

/

About half an hour later they arrived at the ranch. They knocked off three guards and surrounded the building until they got together back at the main entrance. 'No further outside guards', Ziva whispered.

'Great, let's break in', Tony said and tiptoed to the door and had a look inside. It was quiet and dark.

'Are you sure they're here?', he asked. 'Abby confirmed the geographic coordinates', McGee looked confused.

'They may be in a cellar', Ziva remembered him and passed Tony to open the unlocked door. They entered the house.

/

Gibbs took a long breath. Nobody had done any physical harm to him except for tying him onto chains. But he had to watch Chris getting tortured by Landsberg. 'Why the hell are you doing this?', Chris moaned.

'To make you feel how I felt the past fifteen years. And to take my revenge.'

'That's pretty much the same', Gibbs said. Landsberg ignored him. 'When you can talk, I haven't done enough to you', Landsberg said to Chris and turned the knife in his hands.

Gibbs looked at Jessica. The guards also showed emotion to Chris because he was very heavily wounded but Landsberg obviously had fun. However, Jessica and her boyfriend have not changed their facial expression since Landsberg had started torturing one hour ago, after letting them wait for about a day in the cellar of this house. Chris screamed again. Landsberg laughed again.

Suddenly, the door flung open and all Gibbs heard was the firing of guns. It went all so fast and the next time after he had blinked, he saw the men lying on the floor, dead. Landsberg ran over to one of them, grabbed the machine gun and started to fire loudly with shouting the worst words. Then he fell dead to the ground. Gibbs looked at Jessica. Why the hell did she shoot him?

'Hey boss, I thought you might wanna get some help', Tony said and went to Gibbs to release him from the chains. Ziva occupied with Chris and McGee hand-cuffed Jessica.

'Why did you shoot him?', he asked surprised.

'He was my actual contract. He still had an open bill to pay with Italian Mafia', she said shortly and let herself being arrested without any resistance.

/

They were back in Washington. McGee, Ziva and Tony stared at the interrogation room. Jessica had been waiting there for almost an hour now. She looked very patient. Finally, Gibbs came in and threw a file on the desk. He sat down opposite to her. He opened the file.

'Jessica Evans, twenty-nine, studied Chemistry in Paris and Toxicology in Britain, Doctor Title, orphan who doesn't know her parents-'

'I know me myself', she said shortly.

He closed the file. 'You work for Mafia?', he asked.

'From time to time.'

'Brad Landsberg was another of their contracts?' She nodded.

There was a knock on the door. Gibbs sighed. He didn't like to be disturbed by anyone during an interrogation.

A man walked in. 'Fornell?', Gibbs asked surprised. 'What are you doing here?'

'My murder, my suspect and my investigation. I need your suspect there', he explained shortly and nodded over to Jessica. 'It is a Navy thing', Gibbs explained.

'I know. I read your report. But FBI was the first one to hunt her', Fornell said. 'We suspect her of the killing of at least twenty people, three of them FBI agents. Any survivors of Landsberg men?', he changed the subject.

Gibbs was surprised by the change of topic. 'No', he said carefully.

'Such a shame. Your boyfriend died there. But I think you'll find enough boys to fuck in prison', he said to Jessica.

'My investigation and my interrogation', he repeated and together with Jessica he left the interrogation room. Gibbs leaned back and sighed.

/

Now that Landsberg was dead, Chris was offered the opportunity to get back into his old life.

He accepted and looked forward to the chance of a new beginning. He wanted to forget what happened to him and his family.

_He wanted to start all over again._

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